I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Randi for inviting me to participate in this
very special event
. Please check out the other stories. You will be in for a real literary treat.
*
As Michael Brady was parking his Ford Focus in the double wide garage next to his wife Candy's Nissan Versa, he had good reasons to be cheerful. This was Friday evening, which in the Brady home, was date night.
They'd been a couple for seven years, four of those as a happy young married couple, and throughout all of their marriage, Friday night was their at home date night. It was sacrosanct and amused or enthralled their mutual friends, so steadfast were they in abiding by it. So far, they'd not missed a Friday date night. So far, that was.
They were in their late 20s, both good looking, childless at present, but they had been seriously discussing having children and had even decided to check out several suitable stores at the weekend to see what would be available to turn one of the bedrooms into a nursery when that time came.
For their date nights one week it would be his turn to cook and her turn to choose a movie, the next week he'd select the movie and she'd cook the food.
Last week he'd really pushed his culinary skills to their limits when he made a restaurant quality pasta alfredo pollo, and for the dessert he had made a tiramisu which had turned out far better than he had expected. The bottle of Chianti he had selected worked very well with both dishes.
Candy had selected an Adam Sandler movie, 50 First Dates, which they had both enjoyed.
He hadn't yet chosen the movie they'd watch this evening; he'd check Netflix once he knew what food Candy was preparing.
When he walked through the door, he dropped his laptop bag in the walk-in closet in the lobby of their house. He gave his normal cheery greeting in his best (not that good, to be honest) Dezi Arnes impersonation: "Hi, Lucy, I'm home!" Even after all these years Candy would laugh at this. But this evening, she was silent and seemed somewhat nervous.
He also noticed that there was no smell of cooking and that the dining table in the living room was bare. "Hey, Candy, would you like me to help by setting the dining table?"
A look passed over her face that was almost akin to panic. "Oh, I don't need your help in setting the table. In fact, I'd like a raincheck on this week's date night, please."
Michael was puzzled: "Why on earth would you want a raincheck for our date night? Do you want us to go out, instead?"
"No, Michael, I want something else. Bob Jones at work has rented a vacation cottage at The Lakes and he has invited me to spend the weekend with him. I'll leave this evening in a little while, he's picking me up in his Mustang, I'll spend Saturday and Sunday with him at his cottage, then on Monday morning we'll drive directly to the office, together.
"After work he and I will have an early dinner and I'll be back home with you at about seven or so. And then we can have our delayed date night and you can reclaim me as your woman."
Michael was stunned by this totally unexpected turn of events. "Reclaim you as my woman? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Bob has had experience in this type of situation before. He assures me that the reaction of the husband is usually to reclaim his wife after she returns from her tryst. Maybe with a special reward, perhaps letting you take my bottom?"
Michael snorted and said: "Oh, great. After a weekend of Bob getting his cock covered in your vaginal secretions, I get to have my cock covered in your shit? No thanks. I think I'll pass on that."
Candy seemed put out by his reaction. "There's no need to be like that, Michael. If anal sex is off the menu, then that's okay. You didn't need to be like that about it."
Michael retorted: "Really? I don't? Anyway, whilst I'm twiddling my thumbs at home this entire weekend, you intend to be having sex with this Bob character?" The tone of his voice clued Candy into the fact that he was, not unnaturally, very unhappy with this idea.
"Please, Michael. Don't think about what Bob and I will be doing together. I don't think you obsessing about it will do your mental health any good."
He shrugged: "Telling me not to think about it won't help. That's like telling someone to not think of a white bear. The harder they try to do that, the more they think of the white bear. Anyway, we had a whole weekend of plans, you and I. What's Bob got that would make you give up on us like this?"
"Oh, honey! No! Don't think like that! I'm not giving up on us. This will just be a brief moment in time out of our long married life together. As for Bob, some of the girls at work have dated him and they speak highly of him as a considerate, capable lover. I sort of feel a connection with him and I decided to accept his invitation for this weekend."
Michael replied: "We were going to visit the local Crate and Barrel branch, Ikea and the nearest Pottery Barn to check out stuff for the nursery when we decide to have kids. And... Oh! I just thought of something."
He placed the flowers on the island between the kitchen and the living room, took his phone out of his pocket, opened an app and tapped some keys. "I just cancelled our dinner reservation for Sunday at Romano's." He continued tapping on the phone before setting it down.
"Why did you cancel the booking? You could have gone there yourself?"
"What the hell? And sit there by myself like a damn simp, surrounded by couples and staff we know all saying to me: 'Hi Michael. Where's Candy?' And what do I say? 'Oh, she's off being railed by her lover?' Get real!"
"Sorry, Michael, I guess I didn't think of that. Anyway, I think you should do something over the weekend to keep your mind occupied. Maybe some DIY projects?"
"Fuck that shit! I'll not be working on this place while you are having a weekend fuck session with your lover. And what gives you the idea that I'd be comfortable with the idea of you making me your cuckold?"
"Oh, Michael. You wouldn't be my cuckold. That sounds dirty and nasty. I'll just be having a one off tryst with Bob, that's all."
"But you just said you and he have felt a connection. What if, after you try him out, you decide that you no longer love me no longer feel connected to me and want to spend the rest of your life with Bob?"
"I promise that won't happen, Michael! I'd never do that to you. You mean the world to me."
"I somehow can't accept your word on that, now. We already promised to be faithful to each other in our wedding vows. How do you hope to be able to convince me that you really mean your promise this time? I no longer feel that I mean the world to you."
"I can see why you might think that way, Michael. But times change and so do social norms. Why don't we agree to talk about things on Monday evening when I get back?"
At that point she noticed the bunch of flowers that he had picked up from the florist that had a small store in the ground floor of his office block.
"Those are nice flowers, Michael. Thank you for getting them for me. Why not put them in water?"
"What's the point? They'll be dead and wilted by the time you get back home on Monday night from your tryst.
"Candy, please don't go. Stay with me, we can quickly put together a meal or order a delivery, drink a little wine. Then we can talk things through. Maybe look at arranging marital counseling?"
She shook her head. "No, I have arranged to go with Bob this weekend. He's coming to pick me up soon. But counseling seems like a good idea, going forward. We can look at booking sessions when we talk on Monday."
"We won't talk on Monday, Candy. We talk now or we never talk again."
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Michael," she huffed, angrily. "I'll see you Monday evening. Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine. You'll see. It'll all work out okay."
She hugged him briefly, kissed his cheek, and grabbed a travel bag from beside the front door, swiftly donning a jacket.
As her hand grasped the door handle, she looked over her shoulder at him and mouthed, "I love you," before she walked through the door and out of her marriage.
Michael was not going to put up with such crap. He grabbed his phone, pressed a key to check the recording he'd just made and walked upstairs, removed three suitcases from the walk-in closet in the master bedroom and carefully filled them with his clothing.
He deliberately worked in a slow, methodical way to help calm the rage that he was feeling.
He put his two suits in a suit carrier, put his two lightweight jackets and his two winter jackets, t-shirts and dress shirts in two other suitcases and within half-an-hour he had all of his clothing packed away.
From the home office he removed his tower PC, his laptop and his MacBook and the boxes of random cables, data sticks and pieces of kit that every computer nerd seemed to collect. He made several trips, taking them into the garage and placed them in the passenger seat foot well and on the passenger seat of his car along with his laptop bag he retrieved from the closet in the lobby.
Next, he obtained all his important papers including his passport, birth certificate, college diplomas and the like and placed them in an old messenger bag his late mother had bought him when he had graduated from college.